About
Giovanni Antonio Boretti (circa 1640 in Rome - December 17, 1672 in Venice) was an Italian opera singer bassist and composer, known mainly for his eight operas.
About Boretti is essentially known only what is mentioned in the prefaces to the libretti of his operas. Secured is his Roman origin. Perhaps was Guid'Antonio Boretti from Gubbio, active in Rome from 1619 to 1646, mentioned as a singer of the opera La maga fulminata (Venice 1638), his father.
His activity as a singer is guaranteed by the prefaces of the opera Le fortune di Rodope e Damira (Pietro Andrea Ziani, Turin 1662) and his own work Alessandro Amante (1667). He is said to have sung from 1659 to 1661 at the Basilica of Sant'Antonio in Padua.
His first opera - La Zenobia (1666) - was also the first of the librettist Matteo Noris. It was about Septimia Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra, who lived in the third century. The world premiere took place at the Teatro San Cassiano, where usually comedies were played from 1659 onwards. The work is dedicated to Filippo Giuliano Mazarin Mancini. The libretto indicates that Boretti performed in the role of the satrap king and that the scenes were painted by Francesco Santurini (1627-1682).
For the Venetian carnival season 1667/68, the opera Eliogabalo by Francesco Cavalli was announced at the Teatro Santi Giovanni e Paolo, a drama about the Roman emperor Elagabal. However, the premiere was canceled at short notice. Instead, Borettis Eliogabalo was given with a new libretto by Aurelio Aureli. While in Cavalli the voluptuous and dissolute emperor is murdered in the end, he survives in Boretti's version and regrets his actions. The Cavalli version was premiered in 1999 in Crema and then u. a. presented in Brussels, Innsbruck, Paris and Amsterdam. Boretti's opera, however, is so far forgotten.
As of April 3, 1672 Boretti was obliged as vice-Kapellmeister at the court of Parma. He died in Venice in December of the same year during the preparation of his last operas - Domitiano and Claudio Cesare, which were premiered ten days after his death.
Postum reached his opera Eliogabalo also in his native city of Rome to the performance, on January 4, 1673 at the Teatro Tordinona. This work was again shown in 1687 in Venice, but under a different title.